Medical Vacations to India: Affordable Healthcare Options for Middle-Class America

Medical Tourism Packages: a Boon for Middle-Class Americans

An increasing number of middle-class Americans are looking to developing countries for high quality, yet affordable medical tourism packages. Patients requiring major cardiac or orthopedic surgeries that cost upwards of $15,000-$20,000 in the US are heading offshore to avail of the more cost effective options in these countries. Medical vacations to countries like India are becoming increasingly attractive to lower or middle class Americans who find exorbitant insurance premiums in the US out of their reach. Such medical packages are also a godsend to a number of Americans who fall in the uninsured sector and are, therefore unable to receive high quality treatment in their country.

How Cost Effective Are Medical Packages

Howard Staab was one of the thousands who went on a medical vacation to India recently. An uninsured, self-employed carpenter from North Carolina, he had been diagnosed with acute mitral valve prolapse that necessitated surgery. The estimated cost at a US hospital was $200,000 with an initial 50% advance deposit. The cheapest option amounting to $40,000 at a Texas hospital was still unaffordable to the middle aged Staab. Further investigation took the Staabs on a medical vacation to New Delhi, India where a NYU trained cardiovascular surgeon was able to perform the surgery.  When Howard returned to work after treatment, his wallet was lighter by $6,700 – all expenses included.

Medical Tourism Packages: Global Recognition

Offshore medical packages are fast gaining acceptance from overseas patients and monitoring bodies alike. Bangkok’s Bumrungrad International Hospital treated 55,000 American patients last year, an increase of 30% from the previous year. Reputed hospitals in Thailand and India also report an increase in the number of patients flocking to them annually.  International quality assessment organizations have given the nod to the kind of healthcare that is available at foreign hospitals.  Hospitals in Mexico, India, Thailand, Lebanon, and Pakistan have been awarded ISO recognition for quality health management programs.  Over 80 hospitals in Thailand, India, Singapore, China, and Saudi Arabia have also been accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

Medical Packages: Growth Prospects

The future bodes well for offshore medical tourism packages.  The influx of much needed foreign revenue can only bolster the healthcare sectors in these countries.

Source: Arnold Milstein, M.D. M.P.H., and Mark Smith, M.D., M.B.A., America’s New Refugees – Seeking Affordable Surgery Offshore,” The New England Journal of Medicine, October 19, 2006